Stylish Kid

3 weeks ago I'd have expected a Shankland call up. Unfortunately Hearts, and him, both hit poor form at a bad time. Then again, as others have said, Scotland has a terrible record of calling up in-form strikers, Jordan Rhodes being the most egregious example. I do think Shankland is a good option as he is apparently succeeding at playing up top on his own, which has been a criticism of his game in the past.

I suspect the reason that you're so touchy about our goalkeeper is that by and large, being crap is a pre-requisite for being a Hibs keeper (Marshall excepted)

Agree. I had to do a double check when he was tagged on Twitter as I thought he was a rugby front row-er with that heid/neck combo

Well, delighted with a 0-3 away, regardless of opposition. But it highlights the gulf between SPFL and Europe - you can miss chances/give up opportunities to the opposition here and you'll get a second chance. IBS didn't give us that luxury ! Anyway, very pleased to be 3rd again. Concerned by our injuries again. I was going to blame my long-held suspicion that we do something wrong, however both sides had players dropping like flies - don't really get what was going on there....

Yeah, I've got some sympathies with logistics. It's more that Levein always does Hearts, Preston always does St J/Hearts (I think?!), and Bonnar, especially Bonnar does nothing but Celtic

What on earth is going on?! Is there something inherent with the pitch/conditions that are causing these injuries?! I know Hearts have had significant issues already this season, but that's 4 players off...

Sounds like a very open match so far.

Levein (who I generally have time for!) states he's not seen much of Motherwelll this season... Now it might have been "in the flesh", which is slightly different than simply not doing homework. However it made me think again that the BBC pundits just get to go and see their favourites....

Intrigued to see how we line up. I assume a 4-3-3, Gordon Smith Neilson Kingsley Cochrane Kiomourtzoglu Devlin Halliday Forrest Shankland Mckay Although based on what Robbie/BBC said it's potentially 4-1-4-1?! Gordon Smith Neilson Kingsley Cochrane Devlin Forrest Kiomourtzoglu Halliday Mckay Shankland

In other news, Alex Cochrane has apparently made 50 appearances for us which is really incredible and shows how important he is to the team.

Lolz at Off the Ball joking about Richard Gordon being the returning hero. Pretty sure they know the issues

He's no worse than Porteus or whatever other donkey plays alongside him

I think there isn't a tribunal - United cocked up I think . Sibbick is fine, confidence is just shot.

I generally don't look forward to matches against Motherwelll, particularly away, with great optimism I'm optimistic now though!

Good luck with the bookies!

A win is a win. We've been on a stinking run and were shot of confidence. Hopefully we can spur on (generally). As predicted, Halkett was rushed back with predictable results

We're midgets compared to this lot. So we take on Forrest. Another midget

I should start doing positive predictions

Much as we've missed him, I hope we aren't rushing Halkett back. Anyway, after listening to a Latvian football writer berate individual Riga players on SATF pod I'm feeling way more confident. That said, we struggled physically last week and RFS have some giants so....

Good un-jynxing

I didn't think we were bad on the whole last week. I've seen us play much worse and lose by much smaller margins. Unfortunately we were playing a very good team. I, like others, thought that the puff went out of the team after the second goal. Whilst Istanbul played very well, their no 9 & 77 (playing at 9) were borderline unplayable. Unfortunately we don't have massive defenders, even Halkett isn't particularly tall. I'm more concerned that Riga got a good result in Florence and are apparently a team of Baltic Giants. This will be a far cry from playing Baltic nation teams 20 years ago. Quietly confident of a close away victory

I'm no republican, but if my leisure activities are curtailed for 10 days, I want to withdraw my labour (and tax!!!) from the economy for that period

To be fair to the ToB organisers apparently a lot is to do with sudden lack of availability of police. I imagine that might stuff some matches too...

Exactly!!!